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Faith on Trial
Freedom of Speech attack in Finland
Note: The following is an extract from an article on persecution published by Issachar People
 IN every generation, truth comes to court. Sometimes literally. In Finland, a medical doctor, parliamentarian, and grandmother of seven found herself standing trial not for incitement, corruption or violence, but simply for quoting Scripture. Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Finnish Parliament and former Minister of the Interior, was charged with “hate speech” for publicly affirming biblical teaching on marriage and sexuality.
Her case, while unfolding in a democratic nation, exposes a growing tension in the Western world: the conflict between freedom of belief and the modern creed of expressive individualism. The question beneath the legal and cultural noise is ancient, will we allow God’s Word to define truth, or will truth be defined by shifting human consensus?
Yet the plight of Räsänen is only one facet of a larger global story; one of escalating persecution, silenced voices, and moral inconsistency.
Truth on Trial: The Case of Päivi Räsänen
In 2019, Päivi Räsänen posted a tweet quoting Romans 1:24-27, questioning why her church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, was sponsoring a Pride event. She followed this with a small booklet she had written nearly two decades earlier on biblical anthropology. For these actions, she was charged under Finland’s hate speech laws. Though acquitted twice, most recently in 2024, the fact that she stood trial at all reveals a seismic shift in Western societies. Yet, in the seventh year of her “hate speech” case, Ms Räsänen again faced Finland’s Supreme Court last week.
Räsänen’s calm and respectful defence of Scripture was not an act of hostility but of conviction. “If expressing my religious beliefs is considered criminal,” she said in court, “then I am prepared to defend them whatever the consequences.”
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Her trial recalls Jesus’ own words: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). It also echoes Isaiah’s prophecy: “Truth has stumbled in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:14).
”In an age that celebrates diversity, biblical conviction increasingly stands alone.
Päivi Räsänen
 Räsänen’s courage invites us to ask: has Western culture, the historic cradle of religious liberty, forgotten the sanctity of conscience? In an age that celebrates diversity, biblical conviction increasingly stands alone. Yet her story also calls the global Church to solidarity, to remember that persecution, whether overt or subtle, is one continuum of spiritual opposition to truth.
From the deserts of Nigeria to the courts of Europe, from the camps of Xinjiang to the ruins of Syrian villages, the story is the same: the world resists the reign of Christ, yet the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).
The persecution of believers, though grievous, is not defeat but participation in the cross-shaped geography of redemption. Every prayer, every act of courage, every tear shed in faith, extends the borders of the coming kingdom.
One day, the silence will break. Every hidden suffering will be heard. Every persecuted saint will stand vindicated in the presence of the Lamb.
Until then, may we, like Päivi Räsänen, stand firm, gentle yet unyielding, as witnesses to the truth that sets the world free.
Ed note: The outcome of this trial is scheduled for the Spring of 2026. The nature of the judgement will have profound ramifications for the freedom of speech in Western nations.
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